There are few perks to being the spare rather than the heir to the throne.
Royal Family members such as Prince Harry and Princess Margaret, who have been cast as the spare, have often struggled to navigate the less prominent role.
Nevertheless, playing second fiddle to the person who will one day be monarch does have its advantages.
Look no further than the Queen Mother – a colossal figure in the modern history of the Royal Family who we might never have met had King George VI been the heir.
This week it has been 102 years since the then-Prince Albert married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.
British princes at the time traditionally married princesses from continental Europe in fairytale-like arrangements.
While she was still a member of the aristocracy, Lady Elizabeth was not what the Windsors would have considered marriage material.
But the wedding was allowed to go ahead to show that in an age of political modernisation, the royals were also changing with the times.
Prince Albert, the Duke of York and future King George VI, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on their wedding day on April 26, 1923
A young Elizabeth in 1912. While she was still a member of the aristocracy, Lady Elizabeth was not what the Windsors would have considered marriage material
The then-Duke and Duchess of York at Royal Ascot in 1931. At the time the duke had no reason to expect the Crown to ever be placed on his head
The royal author Tom Quinn revealed in his book ‘Gilded Youth’ that the wedding was only made possible because of King George’s position as the spare.
‘When Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married the shy, diffident ‘Bertie’, the future George VI, she would have known it was only possible because he was not the heir.
Quinn wrote: ‘In 1923, royal snobbery was at its peak, but it wasn’t the strain of madness that ran through the Bowes-Lyons that would have prevented the marriage had Bertie been the first-born son.
‘The difficulty would have been that, on one side, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was descended from Durham mine owners.’
But for the spare, George could ‘marry for love and he simply needed a strong woman from the right sort of aristocratic background,’ Quinn added.
The Queen Mother certainly still came from a well-to-do family and, although not royalty, they owned an ancestral castle in Scotland and another in County Durham.
On top of this, the families moved in the same social circles – which is how George met Elizabeth as a child and then again as adults at a ball.
When the then-Duke of York first proposed to Elizabeth in 1921, she turned him down due to her misgivings about royal life.
Elizabeth with her parents the Earl and Countess of Strathmore on her wedding day. The Queen Mother certainly came from a well-to-do family and, although not royalty, they owned an ancestral castle in Scotland and another in County Durham
Elizabeth aged six. The WIndsors and Bowes-Lyons moved in the same social circles
The Duke and Duchess of York with their daughter Princess Elizabeth in 1927
But on the third attempt she said yes.
On the day that news of their engagement appeared in the Press, a member of the household at St Paul’s told the Daily Mail: ‘The engagement was a great surprise to everybody here.
‘It was pretty well known that the Duke was very, very fond of Lady Elizabeth, but as to her feelings towards him little was known.
‘Last weekend, though, after the proposal, she was all smiles and it was easy to see that she was very happy indeed.
‘Everybody in the neighbourhood is tremendously glad, for Lady Elizabeth is such a sweet girl and everybody loves her.’
The Duke did not then expect to inherit the Crown, so his wedding was more low-key than if he had been heir.
Nevertheless, the Yorks’ wedding took place before 1,800 guests at Westminster Abbey on April 26, 1923. Hundreds of thousands of well-wishers lined the royal procession route outside.
Elizabeth’s dress was made from silk and embroidered with pearls and beads.
Lady Elizabeth with her parents the Earl and Countess of Strathmore (left) and the Duke of York’s parents King George V and Queen Mary (right)
The Daily Mail’s coverage of the wedding included photographs of the bridesmaids and other leading figures at the ceremony
Made by court dressmaker Madame Handley-Seymour, it boasted a train from both the waist and shoulders.
Over her face Elizabeth wore Queen Mary’s lace veil and, like Queen Victoria, she wore a coronet of orange blossom instead of a tiara.
For their honeymoon, the couple travelled to Polesden Lacey manor house in Surrey.
By 1930 they had two daughters, Princess Margaret, born that year, and Princess Elizabeth, born in 1926. They had largely settled into life as the spare, assuming the Crown would never be placed atop of the duke’s head.
But destiny had other plans when, following King George V’s death, King Edward VIII’s desire to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson sparked the biggest constitutional crisis in centuries.
Bertie found himself thrust on to the throne when Edward abdicated for the union.
The Duke and Duchess of York then became King George VI and and Queen Elizabeth and their daughters became heir and spare.
King George’s reign was one that saw the brutal upheaval of the Second World War – and by his side throughout was Elizabeth.
A postcard celebrating the wedding of Prince Albert, later King George VI, and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
The Queen Mother would commit herself to royal duties for much of the rest of her life, demonstrating how the initial doubts she had about entering royal service were misplaced
At the outbreak of war in 1939, there were suggestions that the Queen and her daughters could be evacuated to Canada. But a defiant Elizabeth shut this rumour down by saying: ‘The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave the King. And the King will never leave.’
The Royal Family therefore lived through the Blitz alongside the rest of London.
In September 1940, Buckingham Palace was badly damaged during an air raid.
Elizabeth, with her typical dry sense of humour, said in response: ‘I’m glad we’ve been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.’
After the war, the King and Queen faced the challenge of uplifting a population that had been battered and bruised.
And while King Edward had been regarded by figures such as Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Gordon Lang as desperately unsuited to be King – which he demonstrated during his eight tumultuous months on the throne – George emerged as a successful and much-loved monarch.
Integral to this success was the deep bond he shared with his wife, a woman who became a loyal lieutenant to her daughter when she inherited the throne after George’s death in 1952.
Despite the sadness of his loss aged 56, the Queen Mother would commit herself to royal duties for much of the rest of her own life – demonstrating how the initial doubts she had about entering royal service were misplaced.